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Greetings, folks.
I had this idea in mind for a while now, which would include a Scenario / Operation meant to be added to the weekly Ops that rotate including Killer Whale, Narai, etc.
Basically what this idea of mine includes:
* A tier VIII & IX Carrier-oriented operation which allows all nations, and all ship types/classes with tier VIII and IX.
* Battle of Midway-styled operation, from Japanese point of view (So a fully offensive scenario where the player team will attack an island and has to fight heavy resistance).
* Up to three carriers per player team.
* Some allied AI ships, including at least one CV, which will aid in the player team's attack, and also help with immersion.
Objectives could be:
* [MAIN] Support the landing ships that have to reach the island with a certain amount of infantry still alive.
* [MAIN] Destroy the Aerodrome(s) on the island.
* [SECONDARY] Destroy enemy aircraft carriers in the vicinity.
* [SECONDARY] Destroy particular enemy ships that are pushing certain positions and flanks of your fleet.
* [SECONDARY] Destroy a certain number of fortresses and bunkers in the vicinity of the island.
Key Strategies could be:
* Carriers have to support and cover the team in pushing up the defences and holding off air raids from the island's Aerodromes and aircraft carriers.
* Aerodromes and AA emplacements (Forts maybe?) have to be destroyed as quick as possible for best allied CV efficiency.
* Battleship- and Heavy Cruiser-players should focus on fighting on-shore emplacements while the Destroyer- and Light Cruiser players should focus on fighting enemy ship hordes.
I've always wanted to see a more carrier-oriented scenario as in, where it's oriented about carrier-players. Also, because this scenario should include the higher tiers (VIII and IX) it should avoid a lot of problems with new CV players that don't know how the game works with CV meta. Nothing against new CV players though, but the Training Room and Co-Ops can be used to learn how to play CVs. I just love to see carrier-tactics and communication between CV players, which can't be achieved in the current state of the game since you can only have a division with one CV (which I understand due to balance. I wouldn't want a Random Battle with CV Divisions against me...). So I thought to lay my idea in front of the community, so I could get some feedback, and see what you guys think about such an Operation.
Cheers, and let 'em have it! FIRE!
~ Sirion.

Hello, "normal" player here since closed beta.
Even though I don't play carriers much (only a few games to "know my enemy"), as a former chess player for me it's all about balance and gameplay. So since I've seen all the rise and decline of the carrier gameplay through the years, I make some suggestions here so that we start seeing carriers more often (like every game hopefully) but in the same time balance them so that their existence in a game does not become a frustrating experience for the rest players.
First of all, lets see what are a few "issues" about carriers:
1) Every ship category except the CVs has some short of risk vs reward. The DDs must get relatively close to torp (and even closer if they want to torp more successfully) and they risk getting spotted (radars, planes, other DDs..). The cruisers, kinda the same as DDs, while being in danger of getting citadeled. The BBs can be seen further away than any other ship and so everybody wants and can burn them. (Exception to this rule is Moskva (why does a CA have worse concealment than BBs? so f*cked up) and Conqueror (why such an OP concealment? again, so f*cked up). Anyway....
2) If one carrier player is better than the other, most of the times game is decided right then, from the get go. It's the only ship that skill difference makes such a big impact in the game. Furthermore (or at the same time...), in higher tiers, you see many "unskilled" carrier players, just "parking" their fighers idle at a spot or hovering above a ship, unable to multitask all their planes and just focusing on playing their torp planes and bombers, with result, the skillful player can spot better, can support AA better, can area deny better.. or rather far better than an unskilled one. - Furthermore, if you lose your carrier because he yolo-d or he was unskilled and didn't move when the enemy pushed his side and got spotted or the enemy CV killed him etc you now face a situation that you must rush all the way or every minute that passes the enemy CV will gradually kill everybody with nothing you can do, completely destroying the gameplay in the cases you lose your team's carrier. (and again, many players don't move because maybe they are too busy multitasking so many planes that they completely lose their map awareness?)...Anyways...
3) They are very leathal. Nothing you can do when there's 3 torp planes and 2 bombers coming at you. Carriers can so easily (if skilled) one-shot a ship. Nobody wants to be one-shotted (aka: deleted).
So, here are some suggestions of how we can improve all this, in my opinion:
1) Risk Vs reward: Every ship in the game... has range. Carriers in reality... have range (of how far the planes can operate) and all the more so, during WWII (limited range). So give carriers RANGE. Make them having to follow fleet to operate in their active range or hide behind some island (like US cruisers) to be within range. In this way you increase their risk but also indirectly force them to be very active in spotting their area (to spot DDs that can spot them), forcing unskillful players to use their fighters more efficiently...
2) How can an unskilled player cope up with above change? We already said that they can't multitask so well already. Well then.... ---> REDUCE NR of PLANES. 5-6 planes are too many for the average Joe to multitask and play successfully and that is what makes a skillful player make such a difference. Better have high tier CVs have less planes but the average players can play them all relativelly ok then so many planes with the unskilled players parking them idle. Better have CVs with (example) 1 fighter plane, 1 torp plane, 1 bomb plane each, but the average Joe can multitask and play them, than 5-6 planes where half of them sit idle. - Of course adjustments to dmg, survavability etc should be made in this case, while maintaining some difference in playstyle between various countries. So ok, make one country'splanes more survavible, the other's more leathal, give one CV more armor, the other better concealment etc. If you decide to go that way, you know what to do...
3) With the above change, we can also balance #3 issue - the lethality - through the adjustments and the reduction of planes.
Furthermore, when all the above changes are done and balanced, we can have more than 1 carrier per team in each game because they will both have range issues and their lethality will be reduced and ofc at the same time you have to increase the credit making coefficient (past nerf) of the carriers to give players a bigger insentive to start playing their carriers again.
Again, nobody likes to be one-shoted. Nobody likes to be attacked again and again from a ship 40+km away with nothing he can do about it and nobody likes to have an unskilled CV player in his team while the enemy CV player is devistating. If you don't change that, better remove carriers from game altogether!
I could write more but that's all the time I want to afford from my Saturday afternoon in this essay :p
Hope I helped,
Stugga

After the addsion of the new US OP(cruiser) line, I would be nice with a change of the CV MM to +-1 on the server as an exprement. The insane AA now adays makes CV close to useless, and dont tell me to spot the reward is to low (and yes im the 332k spotting damage guy) On the same time the rework is coming why not make it more bareable to play CV untill it comes ?
mang

This was originally a Reddit post to take stock of the current situation with carriers.
Uniquely to this class, many high-skilled players are dissatisfied with the very existence of carriers. Personally, I first agreed with CVs mixing up the game and there being plenty enough counter play opportunities. But as I got better I realised that those "counterplays" generally weaken one's gameplay a lot by denying many of the normal effective choices. CVs hardcounter concealment based playstyles and force players to stick together, which does not work out well in random battles.
On the other hand I also unlocked every tech-tree carrier with a super unicum rating and therefore have some insights into the complaints that CV players have, especially regarding divisioning and the state of anti-air.
CVs are balanced on a much higher power level than any other ship class
This is a simple fact that many CV players don't want to acknowledge since it is seemingly contrarian to their own perception of AA being too powerful, but in reality both points are valid at the same time.
As it stands, CVs are the number one class in spotting (by a laughable margin), dealing damage (even though a few individual ships like Conqueror are ahead... for averagely skilled players at least), and dealing killing blows. They dominate every statistic - they even lead in average XP by about 15%, despite having extremely diminished multipliers compared to all other ship classes. Without those multipliers, the difference in XP would be astronomical and show much better how superior CVs truly are.
Ultimately, CVs have a much higher impact on the win rate of their team than any other individual could have.
CVs' biggest strengths don't even show up in the stats.
While players generally fawn over damage numbers, win rates, and experience as measurements, spotting and zoning are concepts that are extremely difficult to quantify in World of Warships. DDs for example always were at the low end of all the usual stats, and yet were the most impactful class at the very least until radar became as powerful as it is now. That is largely because they give their team the spotting advantage, and because their torpedoes are an immense threat that force the enemy into suboptimal plays even if they never score a hit. You will frequently find superior forces turn around because noone is willing to push into the enemy destroyer who could both permaspot and torpedo them.
But CVs, which already are at the top of damage, kills, and experience, also are the masters of spotting and zoning. This is why they are played even in competitive, which is filled to the brim with AA. They have the ability to threaten enemies with spotting and instant kills across the entire map. It doesn't matter which flank you're at, the single enemy CV can still threaten you.
CVs enhance the radar problem
While currently all community talk seems to be focussed on radars alone, the presence of a CV makes radars more potent. The frequent spotting of both torpedoes and DDs by planes makes it much easier for cruiser players to track the enemy DD's location. Carriers often force CVs to use their smoke to drop vision, which then makes them easy targets for radars.
While in a CV-less game it is often possible to use the fact that enemy radar cruisers do not know when you are within their range for a while, this becomes exponentially more dangerous when there are planes on the map. And the same positions that you may use to evade enemy radars will often isolate you from your AA allies and therefore make you easy prey to a cross drop.
The balancing of other ships is done without CVs in mind. CVs break the balance.
This especially affects two factors: Concealment and AA.
Many concealment-based ships like Shimakaze have virtually no counterplay to CVs besides falling back to their team, even though the entire gameplan of a concealment-based ship is designed around the polar opposite, of finding those far-up positions. This also affects many cruisers, as for example IJN or French cruiser players may gamble for non-CV games to use hydro for aggressive moves. The fact that CVs are exceptionally good at spotting enemy torpedoes adds insult to injury. These ships are perfectly fine in non-CV games (sometimes even on the weaker side still), but the presence of a CV just flat-out destroys their impact on the game.
As for AA specialist ships, WG knows that these ships also have to be viable in non-CV games. And with ships like Montana, Des Moines, Worcester, and Minotaur they certainly accomplished this design goal. The problem is that this makes them ridiculously powerful in CV games (even though the fact that they're often stealth reliant counteracts it to some degree). Theses ships are often designed to be less powerful in straight-up confrontations as a payoff, but still have their tools and tricks to stay relevant when there is no CV to counter. And in a tragic twist for DDs, AA ships also often carry radar with them - partially because both radar and AA are commonly found on more modern ship designs, and partially because radar is also frequently balanced by the exact same payoffs that ships trade in for their AA. This falls back to the "CVs enhance the radar problem" point - DDs are truly fucked in those games.
Active counterplay to CVs is awful.
Since CVs already counter concealment based playstyles, your only option is to stick to other allies - which often leads to terrible lemming train games. The level of play it takes to spread across the map and be safe against CVs is far beyond random teams, especially since random and ranked battles have far fewer AA specialist ships than competitive.
As far as evading an immediate drop goes, it's an incredibly shitty situation. Skill alone doesn't let you dodge a cross drop or dive bombers. Often even doging a CV will still get you killed as you are forced to broadside the enemy team while being spotted. This is quite unlike doging for example BB shells or torpedoes, as good players can prepare their positions in a way that angling against the incoming threat will also give them a save position against the rest of the fleet.
As mentioned in the balance section, the CV presence affects some ships worse than others and forces them into severely diminished, powerless roles. There is no real way to counteract CVs with skill, only being close to AA helps. Your only alternative is to gamble on the enemy CV not being good enough to notice you at all, which is often a statistically viable approach but awful in terms of gameplay. It's pretty much like detonations: if you win your dice roll you are fine and get to play as normal, but if you lose it you simply die.
AP bombs are some of the worst mechanics in the game.
I mentioned some about counterplay, and dive bombers are even worse at this. While torpedo bombers allow for some degree of doging and minimising damage, dive bombers are pure clicking and there is no evading a capable drop.
Now for the old USN monster HE bombs this already could get pretty ugly, but most players simply prepared for the inevitable 10k blast plus multiple fires. With AP bombs the ugly was turned up to 11. The fact that you can simply leftclick a ship and delete it on the spot is just ridiculous. Players get punished purely for bringing the wrong ship. Their total power balance is completely irrelevant, the design itself is awful and needs to go.
CV divisions are absolutely broken.
The main problem here is that only the players who division with the CV know for sure whether there will be a CV in their game or not. So they get to bust out the most insane AA they can find and get a guaranteed major advantage. No other type of division can reliably replicate the winrates that a good CV division can.
But there are some even worse divsions by abusing tier differences. Some divisions "anchor" their surface ships by queueing with a lower-tier CV. A T5 CV with two T6 BBs for example is practically immune to getting T8 matches, so the BBs will never be bottom tier. Other divisions do the opposite: Queueing a T9 CV with T10 AA guarantees the AA advantage even harder, and will easily defeat even other CV divs.
The only real counter to a good CV is another good CV.
This is quite unlike any other ship class. No matter if you are in a destroyer, cruiser, or battleship, you have the means to impact any other enemy ship class, and therefore directly outcarry a good player on the enemy team. Unless that player is a CV that is. The most you can do to that is to deny a small area, if you even are AA specced to begin with. If you truly want to check an enemy CV's ability to spot and assassinate people at will, you need to be a CV yourself.
The result of this can be seen in player winrates. CVs have the most hilariously lopsided winrates of all classes. There are almost no "average" CVs. The vast majority is deep in the red (an incredible part of it below 40%), and a significant part of the rest at super unicum winrates. Also WG already acknowledged the problem with the removal of manual drops on low tiers (however shitty of a "solution" that is) and by making CVs the first class that was perfectly mirrored in tier and number.
And hands down, many games between two good CVs start by both devstriking a DD on the other team. Whether those DDs missplayed or not, this is still a level of influence far beyond that of any other ship class.
So how can all of this be fixed?
The answer most certainly would not be to simply increase AA or nerf plane health. CV players are right in their criticism that there is a huge amount of total death zones in the game already. CV gameplay is already unbearably binary between easy kills and no-gos.
If WG were to maintain the fundamental CV mechanics, they would probably have to dramatically change CV loadouts. A few CVs are much less bad on the mentioned issues than others. Essex for example is unable to cross drop and relies on its dive bombers for damage, meaning its much worse at spotting. It's also more balanced towards an AA role than towards dealing damage, meaning that both CVs are less effective than usual. For a CV it is almost hilariously bad. But the solution here shouldn't be to bring Essex up, but to bring all the other CVs down to this level. To diminish their ability of spotting by making them rely on every single squad to deal damage.
AP bombs should just be removed entirely. There is no reason to have them in the game. They make it strictly worse. They are not very enjoyable for most CV players either with how situational they are.
CV queueing also definitely needs to be fixed. I am not sure why WG still allows for tier differences in divisions at all, but they should be removed for CV divisions at a minimum since these abuses are fairly common already. Another CV queue issue is the double CV matchmaking on low tiers. Having a T6 CV vs Saipan is one of the dumbest experiences in the game, especially since Saipan is already a hardcore sealclubber as T7 CVs are pretty much either premium CVs or total noobs.
But of course WG announced a full-on rework. Speculations go towards a more "action oriented" playstyle that could revolve around closer micromanagement of fewer squads. First of all this would reduce the oppressive spotting power that CVs currently have. It could even go as far as CVs not sharing their spotting with other ships anymore, akin to spotting in a cyclone. But there could be other goodies in there that make patterns of counterplay clearer. For example the gameplay could revolve around having to strafe the enemy AA with fighters to make it easier to bomb them, which would give the target a clear warning and some time to improve their position. Or AA could be restricted in its firing arcs while being stronger when they do have a good angle, giving targets more options in positioning against incoming air attacks.

CV's. I know I am a beginner but in co-op missions isn't it the job of CV's to protect there team from the enemy carrier? Almost every battle I go in the CV ignores the ships so we get bombed and torpedoed all the time. They are spoiling the game TBH.

Introduction
This topic is entered in the game play section of the forum because it not only concerns Aircraft Carrier game play but overall game play in WOWS.
The vaunted WOWS "Carrier rework" has been mentioned on and off over the past two years. During that time the current state of affairs of Aircraft Carriers in WOWS has not been significantly altered by meaningful changes let alone improvements. The only two noteworthy changes with regard to Carriers that have been implemented are (1) the new Flight Modes of the USA Carriers that was introduced at the end of 2017 and (2) the vastly increased number of new ships with very powerful Anti-Aircraft setups and/or Defensive Fire AA (for example ALABAMA, MASSACHUSETTS and the five new USA light cruisers).
As a result there remains a virtual absence of meaningful WOWS Carrier changes to address some of the major Carrier related issues. The vaunted WOWS "Carrier rework" will in all probability not be implemented until somewhere around late 2019 at best, in other words it is a long term event. In order to improve the Carrier game play that currently exists in the short and medium term, that is in 2018-2019, some plausible solutions can be proposed and implemented to address the most serious issues for the benefit of both the opponents and proponents of Carriers in WOWS.
This topic therefore aims to offers such possible and plausible solutions for the 2018-2019 short to medium term to improve Carrier game play from the perspective of both the opponents and proponents of Carriers. The solutions proposed are intended to be ones that can/should be fairly easily implemented by WOWS Developers with a minimum of effort and all need to lie within the framework of the current Carrier and general WOWS game play and game play mechanisms.
In other words, the solutions proposed in this topic are NOT intended as radical solutions which are a full departure of the current WOWS Carrier game play and current overall WOWS game play. Instead the solutions proposed want to build on the strengths and possibilities of the current WOWS Carrier game play and current overall WOWS game play.
The Current Carrier Related Major Issues
Proposed Short and Medium Term Carrier related Solutions
The individual solutions proposed in this section are to be regarded as possible solutions for the short to medium term to improve Carrier game play from the perspective of both the opponents and proponents of Carriers. The idea is to offer solutions that should be fairly easily to implement by WOWS Developers with a minimum of effort and that lie within the overall framework of the current Carrier and general WOWS game play and game play mechanisms. As such these solutions are intended to build on the existing strengths and possibilities of the current WOWS Carrier game play and current overall WOWS game play.
SPOTTING SOLUTION (Alternative A)
SPOTTING SOLUTION (Alternative B)
FIGHTER SOLUTION (Alternative A)
FIGHTER SOLUTION (Alternative B)
FIGHTER SOLUTION (Alternative C)
INVISIBLE SHIP AA FIRE SOLUTION
DEFENSIVE AA FIRE SOLUTION
DESTROYER PROTECTION SOLUTION
CRUISER AND BATTLESHIP PROTECTION SOLUTION
UNIQUE AND LEGENDARY COMMANDER CARRIER SKILL SOLUTION
COMMANDER CARRIER SKILL LEVEL 1 SOLUTION
COMMANDER CARRIER SKILL LEVEL 2 SOLUTION
PLAYER BASE EDUCATION SOLUTION
TIER 5 CARRIER SOLUTION
CARRIER-AA DIVISION SOLUTION
NON-USA BATTLESHIP AP BOMB VULNERABILITY SOLUTION

well, im technically more used to where the "1" key is the first ability button, in other games I have played, not moving the bloody carrier around(I have died several times because I thought I moved by fighters to point B, instead i sent my carrier in the middle of the enemy team lol.) sooo is the only way to fix this is to rebind the scheme completely, or something else, if I need to rebind it completely, what is the keybinding is for it called.
also how to switch camera so that it views the carrier like with other ships? i find regular camera is better in terms of torp evasion.(harder to tell which end is the front in the birds eye view)

Hey everyone!
So I decided to try CVs. No idea why. I mostly play DDs but I don't currently like the radar meta at high tiers at the moment so I decided to try something new.
Langley was actually pretty fun to play. I had some really nice games with her and I quickly got to the Bogue. I don't think that she is a bad ship but my problem is when I am facing tier 6 CVs.
It all comes from the manual drop and strafing mechanics. I get why Wargaming removed it from low-tier CVs but it's absolutely mindboggling why are tier 5 CVs playing against tier 6 CVs. An Independence, for example, needs only one strafe to completely delete my fighters. They are absolutely useless and I only have one squadron of them. I lose them sometimes even if they are in my allies protective AA bubble.
Tier 6 CVs can also manual drop on dds and completely delete them, while I just stand there and facepalm while every single of my torpedos misses against every tier 6 dd. If they guy is AFK I will probably hit him.
I have played this game for some time now and I know that not everything is completely balanced but the tier 5 CV gameplay is a complete joke.
Rant over.
I have no idea what the rework will be but I truly hope that it fixes the CV gameplay because I actually enjoy them.

I like aircraft carriers! And I love having one in my division!
If you enjoy playing cvs and you are:
New cv player or like playing tier 5 cvs, feel free to ask me for tier 5 division!(Will do my best to carry you in my AA Konig)
Average cv player or like playing tier 6 cvs, feel free to ask me for tier 6 division!(Will try to carry us in my AA Bayern)
If you are very good cv player and love playing tier 7 cvs, feel free to ask me for my favorite ship Gneisenau!(My AA Gneisi is pretty much untouchable by tier 7 CVs)

As an honorable and respected CV player i think i'm alowed to say that now that theres an extra anti CV ship with huge AA it becomes by the day more unplayable for a carrierplayer to play this.
I know that you guys @ wargaming are working on it. And that's great. However. Please do keep in mind with the reworks of CV that the power of surface ships in their AA is insane.
When 2 equally good cv players are facing one another its not about how good they are, but more about how well the surface ships are able to take down the high AA ships.
Or facing from the other side, how well your high AA ships are able to hide behind mountains to survive and be helpfull for the Aerial dominance.
CV's aren't overpowered for a long time nomore since players begin to realise they can stack their aa together by the so-called "blobbing up" and moving together. That's good from their perspective and i would do the same ofcourse.
Altho, finding wandered targets over the 8.6km AA range (in a 30-40km map) makes the AA range extremely high.
CV"s striking potentional in some games is lowered to 2 strikes a game.
Ofcourse this doens't happen all games yet, im thankfull for that. But it happens way more often then before.
I believe that many more cv players have the same feeling towards this and it would be nice if Wargaming can take a look at the AA ranges or maximum number of AA in a certain area to rebalance the CV's striking power to the Cruisers and Battleships their AA range and dpm.
@MrConway @Tuccy
Thank you for reading this in an honest way.
regards,
Yohane1

I have picked up the game recently, and got my brother to play it after a while. One time during his first pvp battle in the south Carolina(I have asked him to try out bbs, He has aready tired it out serveral times in co op) and me in Hosho. MM found a Langy for the other side. Some time into the game, he was at point C with some cruisers and doing mostly fine, until a volley of torpedoes appeard at the very last minute. Managed to evade and took 2 torps, and then repaired it. What he did not know is that 2 squads from the langy are also coming for him. Told him about the squads, and he said:”what’s the worst that could happen?”. I sent my fighters to attack the torp bombers, but they instead got intercepted by the langy’s fighters, so the langy is now free to do whatever the hell it wants now(hosho fighters always lose vs langy fighters in my experience, plz add strafing back).
Langy attempted to bomb him, but cause he has brilliant luck, misses everything, so he then sends his torp bombers against him. If you have played a langy or against it, you should know that it basically deploys a solid wall of torps. I was attempting to keep a dd perma spotted when that happened(all my fighters have been derped by langy, so the next best thing is to be give dd permanent radar effect), only thing I know is that he started screaming on how the hell do you doge those, then shortly after the kill feed said langy has torped South Carolina.
Later in port afterwards(we lost that battle, since he can derp my fighters all day long while I can’t to the same to him :P)
Bro: “what ship can kill the most amount of planes and is reasonably forgiving?”
me: ”Des Moines, or USN cruisers in general. Light ones will require more thought into your position tho.”
Bro:” how about bbs? And does that happen quite often?”
me:” I’d say us bbs have the advantage here in aa, but a very determined cv peep can still get something fatal through”
bro: “Japan bbs?(what I’m grinding on right now)”
Me: “peashooters in General, so you need to channel the ERUOBEAT.”
bro: “even Yamato?”
me: “ against similar tiered cvs, i say they will perform ten-go re-enactment on her”
now he is aready working out a plan to have a aa delicated build for his cruisers, and never touched BBs again.

I own the ranger myself, and often find that the Hiryu is capable of dominating with it's two fighter squadrons able to counter your fighters, while attacking your strike group or utterly decimating your fighters while your strike group tries to run.
Carriers aren't played often, so less people run the AA defensive fire ability, and no sensible/sane CV captain will fly over one of these ships (ie: Cleveland, Atlanta etc). And often times you're left circling your aicraft around not being able to do much or they end up destroyed, or you have to sacrifice your fighters just to squeeze one full strike group through, before losing 60-100% of your strike aircraft. It's utterly unbalanced from Tier 5-8 with carriers, and I've seen many people say this over the years as well.
No update seems to have an answer or solution to this & IJN carriers are just out right better in this tier, before USN carriers become competitive at Tier 9 and 10.
Feel free to vote in the poll, post your findings, opinions, thoughts and such below. It'd be good to see some positive change result from this thread so carrier gameplay is actually balanced again, rather than being an RNJ slog hoping you're against another Ranger while playing yours.

Hello,
had a match right now where our Tier8 Lex did not like the matchmaking and decided to sink himself.
Afaik he did not get pink or any warning for teamdamage.
I am wondering if he gets around punishment for being AFK/useless in this match?
Made a screenshot and opened a ticket, but i don´t expect them to really look into it.

I've been messing around with CVs for a bit and I'm wondering if this happens to anyone else.
MOST tmes the battle reports of 'target destroyed' , 'taking damage' etc from the squadrens is fine , but SOMETIMES they don't actually sound off , all I get is a tiny 'beep'.
I then have to re-start the client to get the sounds back.

Hi all
Out of interest what are peoples view's on ship numbers in game. i.e. do you think 5 BB's, 5 DD's and 2 cruisers per team is acceptable?
My own opinion is that this kind of MM seems unbalanced........
What do you all think?

So today I watched Flamuu's latest video about these new WiP upgrades. I already know that they are being tested but nevertheless I was baffled at how such an obvious thing would fly over the heads of WG devs I know that no one of them play main CVs but whatever. Some of you may argue that I'm jumping into the wagon too early and that they'll sort this out but remember, this is WG we are talking about. Their inability to balance the game sometime astonishes me and probably most of you have been too with some of the decisions that have been done throughout the history of the game.
First, for those who don't know, these legendary upgrades are exclusive and unique to each tier X ship. Here are the CV upgrades.
- Hakuryuu. Enhanced Flight Control.
15% Extra health for your fighters
5% Extra speed to all of your aircraft
This upgrade is placed on the last one, which is the one in which you can alternatively get the +15% attack aircraft health.
- Midway. Reinforced Armor Protection for Attack Air Groups.
30% Extra health for your attack aircraft (torpedo bombers and dive bombers)
-5% Speed to all your aircraft
This upgrade is placed on the last one, which is the one in which you can alternatively get the +15% attack aircraft health.
Now the problem should be pretty obvious for anyone who mains CVs. Hakuryuu is getting an straight improvement while Midway is having to exchange a pretty significant stat, the speed of its planes, for a bit more extra health. But let's try crunching the numbers a bit so it becomes more graphical.
Aircraft Speed now
Hakuryuu
Midway
Fighters
180 knots
178 knots
Torpedo Bombers
164 knots
136 knots
Dive Bombers
161 knots
156 knots
Now let's apply the difference if both CVs took their respective legendary upgrade
Aircraft Speed with both upgrades
Hakuryuu
Midway
Fighters
189 knots
169 knots
Torpedo Bombers
172 knots
129 knots
Dive Bombers
169 knots
148 knots
As you can see it becomes pointless to use this upgrade on the Midway when the Hakuryuu slots the upgrade. Not only do Midway Fighters become much more vulnerable to strafing and losing air control by Hakuryuu's 3*5 fighter squadron in the air but also they become unable to catch fully loaded Hakuryuu strike planes. A Hakuryuu can decide any kind of engagement as it wants.
Things stay a bit less one sided when Midway decides to not slot the upgrade but it's still heavily on favor of Hakuryuu's side
Aircraft speed with only Hakuryuu upgrade
Hakuryuu
Midway
Fighters
189 knots
178 knots
Torpedo Bombers
172 knots
136 knots
Dive Bombers
169 knots
156 knots
Now let's take a look at the health values of the planes. These values have been modified with the mandatory upgrades that a carrier player almost allways take (yay for variety). They are: Air Groups Modification 2 (+20% to fighter HP, +50% to fighter ammunition) and Air Groups Modification 3 ( +15% to attack aircraft survivability). They also have been modified with the captain skill Aircraft Servicing Expert ( +5% to HP of carrier-based aircraft. -10% to servicing time of carrier-based aircraft)
Aircraft health now
Hakuryuu
Midway
Fighters
2537 hp
2387 hp
Torpedo Bombers
2532 hp
2052 hp
Dive Bombers
2436 hp
2484 hp
Now let's compare how they'd look with the new upgrades applied to both carriers. Take into account that in both cases the respective upgrade replaces Air Groups Modification 3 ( +15% to attack aircraft survivability).
Aircraft Health with both upgrades
Hakuryuu
Midway
Fighters
2842 hp
2387 hp
Torpedo Bombers
2215 hp
2308 hp
Dive Bombers
2131 hp
2794 hp
Now, some of you may argue that it is a fair trade to lose 300 hp on both torpedo and dive bombers in exchange for the increased speed but at carrier gameplay the health of the bombers doesn't really matter outside their exposure to AA barrage. You can see it right now when a Midway can drop their fragile tier VIII torpedo bombers on BBs and other enemy ships if you know when to. This is further compounded by the loss of AA mounts all ships suffer from HE shells. And even so, in this field Hakuryuu's planes will come on top thanks to their superior speed which will enable them to capitalize enemies out of position much more quickly and eficiently than Midway.
There are other factors to consider like aircraft travel time and aircraft servicing time.
Which brings me back to my original question: Is there any point on sloting this upgrade on Midway? Is there any point on playing Midway once Hakuryuu receives this upgrade? Is there any point in playing Midway over Hakuryuu right now?

Chaps
I wanted to take this opportunity to say that helping your fellow CV Captain win games on behalf of your team (so that means you too) is becoming harder and harder. I want this to change.
A lot of this is down to lack of knowledge, or lack of CV knowledge to be precise. Those that simply don't play CV's don't understand the micromanagement involved, the number of tasking they have and expectations (some unreasonable) some people might have.
The last 2 nights I have witnessed some appalling teamwork, i mean really bad. Now I know this isnt new but IMHO it's getting worse. So i wanted to give people that don't understand CV's a bit of advise in order to make the CV Captains life easier. In doing so, It will massively increase the likelihood for you to win the battle.
Average players thoughts
I am a German tier 9 Tank spec Freddy. I am strong and will smash my way through anything. The CV player will surely provide me with a fighter as i am not AA spec and have a torp belt of cardboard.
Resulting salt
"No support CV, your S***".
CV Players thoughts
I have 1/2 sets of fighters and 3 ships going solo. I have to spot 3 different caps and attempt to knock out the first DD in time. I need to support that DD going into the cap and stop him form being spotted. I need to position my fighters in order to support the fleet as a whole in case of a strike. I need to recce the enemy team enough for the team to see what they are doing. I need to spot the torps coming towards the BB from smoke. I need to engage the enemy fighters going for my own strike. I need to shot down and strafe the enemy fighters to keep the DD safe.
A CV player (good ones) will always try and support you the best they can. But you have to understand that there is a pecking order and you might not even be in the top 10. Here are a few things you can do to help matters.
1) Pair up. If you believe that you have poor AA or not enough to stop at least half the enemy planes then find a AA buddy. That doesn't mean following him around the whole game, but always look for locations that have a friendly AA ship in the general area. Enough to think if that guy pops his defensive AA, the CV player is gonna have a hard time trying to hit you.
2) Enemy AA ships. Take a look (or use the mini map) to see what AA ships the enemy has in on front of you. If you are a DD player and are screaming for friendly fighter to help cap but on the other side of the HIll is a Mino and Des, then the likelihood of the CV player sending fighters are SLIM TO NONE. Don't throw salt at him just because he doesn't have invulnerable planes. Planes last for a matter of seconds in heavy AA if your lucky. Would you push into a Moskva and Des with radar? Then don't expect the CV player to send planes in.
3) Positioning. You are a sneaky DD and are behind enemy lines. You are doing well and then suddenly you get spotted by the CV player .You scream for friendly fighters as your a Shimmy with a rifle on board. Guess what? A CV captain will not send his fighters though enemy ships (most of which have good AA) in order to support your death wish. Factoring the time to takes to get there, the likelihood that when they do they will make a difference (those that are left) and knowing the enemy will now be all over you, isnt going to go in your favour regarding support. Look at the ships the CV player has to get though first and the time it will take. 3/4 times sending plane behind enemy line results in a very few or none returning.
Unless you are a AA spec Fletcher, KIDD or DD with good AA (defensive) then come to peace with the nightmare you might now face. If your on the flank and not surrounded by AA ships then completely fine and we/I will always bat enemy planes off you. But make the decision easy for us by not putting yourself in crap positions we cant help you with.
4) Torp dodge. Don't make the enemy CV captains life easy. The amount of people i see sailing in a straight line and getting whacked by torps in simply astounding. Break this down:
DD/CA captain both the hardest and easiest to hit. One of the best times to sink a DD is when he starts slowing down in order to smoke. DONT. A good CV player can judge the time it takes for you to stop and when you do will receive a wall of torps. Keep moving, even when in smoke. Create a smoke circle but whatever you do don't just slow down and stop.
BB Captains Always turn into the torps and not away from them. I'm sure i don't need to tell you why but in case it's about torp arming and surface area
5) Manuel AA knowledge. You receive a AA buff when you select a certain group of planes right? So knowledge of section is paramount. If you are in a Bismarck and you have a set of Enterprise torp planes and a set of AP bombers coming your way then concentrating on the Bombers will SAVE YOUR LIFE. I know that a AA spec Bis can destroy both but if your anrt then know/learn what planes are going to do the most damage to you. Just one 1 set of AP bombs can blow up a Bis just like that or strip 1/2 of your health, but the spread on the Enterprise torps can only hit so many (if you adopt point 4, 2 if hes lucky)
A Fletcher is the opposite and should target the Torps as AP bombs do squat. So know what planes to target first.
6) Helping win fighter engagements. Fighters cant hurt BB's right? So why would you care about the dog fight that is going on near/above your head? Well simply selecting the enemy fighters will apply the Buff and help your friendly CV win what could be a close air battle. Those remaining planes could then be used to at least mess up the drop that will be heading for your team, or spot a incoming DD. Help as much as you can lads. Even sail into AA range to help those fighters out if it doesn't put you in a bad position.
A good CV play will always try to use your AA anyway and wont get caught in a fighter battle they cant win, but some people are still learning or have no choice, so give them a helping hand.
7) Concentrate fire. One of the many jobs of a CV captain is spot and hopefully kill the enemy DD's. DD's are IMHO the most important ship in the game so we/you need them dead, pronto. If a CV player is spotting a DD or low concealment ship and has announced it on the F5 then focus fire. It's the best example of the selfish comment a CV captain can make as he knows that those planes will start to fall out of the sky. But he does it for the good of the team. If you don't use that opportunity then the CV captain might not bother the remainder of the game. He's not gonna lose planes for nothing. Chaps, you really don't want to make a selfish CV captain.
8) Priority targets. An action has a reaction right? I have a Zao and a mino in front of me and one is going to die . Now the Mino is just bouncing shells off my bow deck but the zao is burning me alive. Your instinct is to kill the Zao but think about it. That 8.4 km AA mino of death might be a means to an end. If i wipe him from the face of the earth the CV player has a single lovely Zao to drop on. A target not even factored as it was surrounded by the Mino/Des AA. You will also keep DD players happy as another Radar ship as met it's end.
If you kill a AA heavy Ship you will increase the likelihood for the CV player to help the team and in turn you. This sounds so simple right but the amount of people i see just tunnel vision on a certain ship and not seeing the bigger picture is shocking. Having a half decent CV captain on your team against no AA heavy ships on the enemy team will 3/4 win you the game. Other 1/4 is the enemy CV captains but he has heavy AA still to deal with.
Summary
Nothing is more frustrating (in a good way) that seeing the enemy fleet support eachother, play as a team and doing all the right anti CV things. Whilst on your team they are moving around like depressed lemmings, getting killed one by one, and throwing buckets of salt at the CV player for no good reason. I want both teams to be equally as good as it makes the game more interesting and less one sided. I don't care if it makes the enemy CV captains life a misery, but it will make 2 of them, not 1 . Playing your heart out in a CV whilst watching your own team throw it away is tiring and saps the CV life out of you.
I hope this helps.
P.S You can probably forget all of this when the CV re-work comes, but lets go out with a bang ay.